Novelist Susanne Alleyn has argued that "the phrase les misérables, which has a whole range of subtly shaded meanings in French, is much better translated into English as 'the dispossessed' or even as 'the outsiders', which can describe every major character in the novel in one way or another, than simply as 'the miserable ones' / 'the wretched ones'. No, It's Not Actually the French Revolution: Les Misérables and History.